The lawsuit against EA Sports over using player likeness just got a huge boost this week. The lawyer representing Arizona State’s Head Coach Todd Graham has announced that Graham will be joining the lawsuit along many former players. The reason this is a boost is because Graham will be the first coach to join the lawsuit. How a coach’s “likeness” comes into play is something that could be heavily debated.

There’s no jersey number nor physical statistics such as height, weight, etc. for Head Coach’s. The AD sets their objectives before the season begins that have to be met. If you’re looking for a new job, there’s a set of objectives that program has for you when taking the job. Just because you’re interested in a program, doesn’t mean they’ll hire you either.

Todd Graham was not available for comment due t0 summer practices being held, but his lawyer released this statement:

“Todd started playing NCAA Football when he was selected as head coach of the Pitt Panthers. After his season ended, he enjoyed the Coaching Carousel feature so much that he was able to accept other opportunities to better himself. No guilt, no text messaging his players. It’s like no-strings sex without having a woman signed paper to keep her mouth shut. Unfortunately, Todd’s coaching career has hit a ceiling as some programs he’d like to coach will not hire him. Todd feels that this is because of his so-called reputation in real life, and maybe EA is trying to exploit it.”

That reputation is that Todd likes to changes jobs…and change them a lot. It seems playing the EA Sports game, he kept moving around from program to program.

“My wife and I prayed on the matter, then consulted the likely payout, and found the divine inspiration to join this lawsuit. With a coach on board, you can expect a high octane boost to the litigation process. Go Panth… uh, what am I again?”

Is Smiley keeping abreast of all these schools really doing high tech upgrades to their facilities?
Or should I ask ?

Some cool things about Arizona’s new Lowell-Stevens Football Facility: underwater treadmills, ventilated seats in the locker room and interactive touch screens that tell the history of the Wildcats program. … (and what history would that be, lol) (always an also ran in the PAC 12)

So, I feel the need to speculate on Thomas. Coach gave him conditions to return to the team and told him to take a week (or x days) to think about it. I don’t know, but not hearing anything is killing me.

@ Reed, Chas and Justin, I know the MO of Chryst regarding his lack of information offered to the media in most instances, especially when the subject involves the internal, behind the scenes, personel management like with this Thomas situation. Even thou Chryst “promised” to inform the Press of any changes/developments on this at the time that he annouced Thomas’ intention of quitting the team last week, there have, in fact, been developments that have occurred.

So my question is “why” hasn’t Chryst explained the status of Thomas’ request for reinstatement after his almost immediate change of heart and their subsequent meeting together? I think that it puts Chryst in a negative light when this lack of information is the status quo, because it permits speculation and all forms of misinformation to take root and propagate. Most of which, considering a large proportion of Pitt fans tend to be negative, reflect poorly on the Coach when such speculation is permitted to swirl around the situation.

Meanwhile, the Press who should be some what “investigative” have avoided the subject themselves as if it was the plague. It’s their responsibility to at least pose this same question to Chrst at this point in time. This is just horrible PR for the program when business is conducted via a “lack of information” like this.

Dr. Tom,
I laughed with you said, “the Press who should be some what “investigative”.
You are talking about Pittsburgh media and more specifically Pitt media. EJ controls the message and the local media.
All the media has the cell phone number of Todd Thomas, his mother, and other players. Real easy to do an investigative report if they chose to on just about any subject.
But they never do.

I’m not so sure that Chryst should be criticized for his no response. For one thing, it could mean that no final decision has been reached. For another thing, his last statement was that Thomas left the team and if something chnages, he will visit it. Thus, if Thomas is still off the team, then Chryst I guess is not going to issue any further statement.

Of course, Thomas who has been publicly poisitive throughout, expressed an immediate desire to return … which PC can either accomodate or reject.

I believe, as Panther94 notede above, that Thomas may beback at practice today after a few days suspension; otherwise, we will likely not see him again in a Pitt uni.

Regarding Chryst and the way he ignores the media while dealing with controversy… it’s pretty simple.

He DOES NOT CARE what people think!

Despite what grades you may be giving Chryst at this point for his coaching, his recruiting, his coaching hires, his management of players… and oh yes… the way he mundanely responds to reporters’questions… he is above everything else a tobacco-chewin’, small-town Wisconsin quy who is much more character than ego.

Appropriate that we should be reminded of the past with the picture above.

More than anyone could be, Chryst is the ANTI-GRAHAM.

Who would you rather have?

The answer should be easy… and the picture above enough to remind everyone how bad it can really be.

Chryst owes the media nothing until TT chooses to return to the team. Chryst’s response should be, “Todd who?”, when asked about him.
Move forward with the players that want to be there and want to work hard. Why would the coach dwell on a player that is putting himself before the team?

Thomas quit on his team and himself. I can understand why coach Chryst is weighing his options. On one hand, maybe Thomas deserves a second chance. On the other, what message is Chryst sending to his team. It maybe better to move on and go with the players who did not quit and want to play for Pitt — win or lose.

The season is closing in on us. It’s time to focus on the people who are practicing for Florida State and beyond. Thomas can focus on his studies and look for his life’s work. With two ACL injuries, NFL scouts will not look favorable on his NFL potential.

All of the responses to my earlier question makes my point even clearer. Opinions and speculation do not replace first hand commentary by the principals involved in the situation at hand. Chryst every well might not give a damn regarding entertaining the media and informing the public. Even if that is the case. I still hold the same opinion that this is bad public relations and Coach should be “coached” on this so as to improve his less than stellar communication skills and raise his PR focus.

He is running a major college football program that has as one of it’s biggest issues a lack of attendence at games and a marginal fan base.

Can he and the program afford to do such a poor job with PR, continuing to ignore these facts, without negatively affecting the program going forward?

Bill Belichek (sp?) is another one who is tight-lipped about his team. But he wins. When this crop of redshirt freshman O-linemen are seniors, we are positively going to destroy some defenses. I’m holding judgement on everything until then.

pghFred, My immediate reaction was that Fraud did join the lawsuit, resulting in the fake message posted above … mainly because if Penni and he prayed on it, I’m sure they were told to go after the extra $$ (just as before.)

I realize that the entire story was fabricated after not seeing any other news story about it.

I’ve deleted most of today’s posts
Just so people know, I’m now blocking any mentions of Joe D. or any comments by Joe D. that aren’t productive or monotonous. I’ve already blocked at least 50% of those kinds of comments but now it’s going to be 90%. That may mean a lot less posts here but to be honest I don’t care because I stand all of this Joe D. talk every day.
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Now I don’t propose that Chas do the same for PittDan83 … but it may serve as a warning.

You can diagree with another poster, and you can disagree with pretty much the opinion of almost everyone on the site (I have done so a handful of times), but you don’t have to be so megative just for the sake of being hateful

since I’m posting from other sites, here is an excerpt from Cardiac Hill, entitled ‘The Chryst Conundrum’ which makes some sense:

Enter Paul Chryst. The program has a leader in Chryst who is the exact opposite of Graham. We’re in year two and I’m not quite sure what we have yet. I’m not sure anyone knows. We may have the next Pop Warner and we may have the next Paul Hackett.

It’s year two and players are still leaving. Good ones. It could be a cleansing, but it could be something worse. At this point, it’s impossible to tell. His tactics may be driving out some of the best players while ridding the program of some bad character. I’m not so sure that’s what happened with Todd Thomas, but Chryst’s version of winning may come at a cost. It may also come much later than anticipated. Pitt is entering a new, more difficult conference with a lot of questions and flaws. I am not making excuses for Chryst. He could easily cater to his stars and allow the players to rule the roost.

However, I will offer one suggestion for Pitt fans. Let it all play out. This program has been through just about everything. No program in the country has seen the instability that Pitt has over the past few years, not even Penn State. So, before year two begins, let’s remember that not everything is black and white. Our expectations as fans should not change. Pitt should win the games it’s supposed to win. But remember that not everything is decided in a year or two. It may take four, five, six, or even seven. As fans, we want to see progress. The results, good or bad, will come.

Hell, we’ve tried everything else, maybe now is the time for a little patience.